Bacon was productive his sophomore season, leading Army in tackles (136, eighth in the nation). But Bacon felt he could be more effective on Army's backline.

Starting from the bottom of the depth chart in the spring, Bacon worked his way up to Army's starting free safety.

Bacon feels now he's in a position to appoint himself captain of the Black Knights' defense.

And this time, Bacon isn't asking for permission for a change.

"I feel like it's my defense," Bacon said. "It's not no military coup or anything like that. But this is my defense. It's no disrepect to the seniors. They can have the team. When the defense is on the field, it's mine. That's just how I feel. We talked about it. You don't become a general by sitting in an office your whole career. It's the same way. You don't become a leader of a team by just being a senior. In my opinion, that doesn't give you the right to say this is my team because I'm a senior. As far as the defense, it's mine."

What does Bacon want to see from his defense, which allowed 35 points per game last season?

"I just want us to be animals," Bacon said. "Have a swagger about ourselves. Not be afraid to take the risk just because I know I have 10 other people there to make a tackle. We want to go out there all out. We want people to be nervous saying I don't want to come back out on the field."

A talk from Col. Chad Davis, Army's assistant athletic director for operations, has provided Bacon with more fire for this year's five-game home schedule, which includes Stanford and Wake Forest in September.

"He said when people come here, they should want to leave and say, 'Man, I don't want to come back to Army.' As a defense, we want to press upon that on our opponents, In my opinion, respect is earned. We admit they have talent and everything like that but they have to earn our respect."

Momo Kime stood up before his teammates recently and told them what was driving him to come back from an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his right knee suffered last November.

Getting back on the field wasn't the senior tackle's only motivation.

"The thing that drove me was I don't want to be on the field and be a liability to the team," said Kime, who started Army's first 11 games last season. "That's the absolute last thing I want to be. These guys mean too way much to me for me to be out there and be the weakest link. I don't want my knee to be an excuse to perform at the level I have to so we can succeed."

Kime said he's "as close to 100 percent as I can be," and will be ready for Army's season opener against Morgan State on Aug. 30 at Michie Stadium.

"It's up to the coaches on how they want to take me through camp," Kime said. "I feel great. I've been doing all the running and the lifts. Some of my lifts are stronger than they were pre-surgery."